Food waste from 26,000 homes in the Stirling area of Scotland will be processed at Horizons Environment’s anaerobic digestion (AD) plant at Deerdykes, near Cumbernauld, following an agreement with Stirling Council.

Previously food waste has been sent to landfill, but the decision to recycle it will save the council money by avoiding increased landfill charges, as well as helping the environment.

Kevin Robertson, Stirling Council’s head of planning, regulation and waste and Councillor Jim Thomson visited the Deerdykes site to see the process first hand.

Jim Thomson said: “Stirling Council is among the best in Scotland at recycling and we are delighted to be able to work with Horizons Environment who has invested in the most efficient equipment to convert food waste into renewable energy.”

Stirling Council has one of the highest recycling rates in Scotland at 47.5% and is planning to extend the food waste collection scheme to over 39,500 homes to help it achieve the Scottish Government’s target of recycling 50% of its waste by 2013.

Horizons Environment is Scottish Water’s commercial resource management business. In addition to the Deerdykes site, which is a former wastewater treatment works, it has plans to convert other redundant Scottish Water sites into AD plants.

L to R: Cllr Jim Thomson; Chris Banks, Scottish Water’s commercial director and chairman of Horizons; and Kevin Robertson

Article courtesy of LAWR Magazine March 2011 issue and webpage:  http://www.lawr.co.uk/news/news_story.asp?id=490&title=Stirling+forges+ahead+with+food+scrap+recycling